In a dart game, a dart is thrown at a target marked on a dart board. Typically the scoring areas are outlined by a wire grid on the face of the target. When a dart point strikes a wire, the dart is deflected and often does not stick in the target, that is, the dart bounces off and lands on the floor. When this occurs, the dart player scores no points and the darts are often damaged or the points dulled by hitting the floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,230,322, to Bottelsen, discloses a no bounce dart having a point slidably mounted at the front end of the barrel. On impact with the target, the momentum of the body causes the point to slide from an extended position to a retracted position wherein the barrel impacts the rearward end of the point and hammers the point into the target. A mechanism is provided to frictionally retard the sliding movement of the point within the barrel so that the hammering action of the barrel does not occur until the tip of the point has had time to move off of the wire obstruction.
If a thrown dart impacts another dart already stuck in the target, the thrown dart is often deflected and will either not stick in the target or will miss its intended destination. Furthermore, the previously thrown dart may be knocked off the target. To minimize this effect, it is desirable for the flight of the dart to be able to rotate about the point. In this way, the flight of a previously thrown dart impacted by a subsequently thrown dart may rotate out of the way, minimizing any deflection of the subsequently thrown dart. However, it is not desirable for the barrel to dangle loosely on the point. If this is allowed to occur, a subsequently thrown dart which hits directly on the barrel or shaft may create a springboard effect and may be severely deflected away from its intended destination.